Two weeks ago, my grandmother passed away - the last grandparent I had left. As those of you with experience in dealing with deceased family members know, the funeral is only the start; the next part is taking care of the deceased's affairs, which includes going through all their belongings to determine what to do with them. I took care of my grandmother's extensive book collection, and while doing so, I hit something that fascinated me to no end: a six-volume Christian Encyclopaedia from 1956. In it, I found something I just had to share with OSNews.

It's not really too surprising that Dutch and German look similar. Back in the not too distant past there was Low German and High German. These languages changed and evolved and are now known as Dutch and German respectively. There's been sufficient drift now that they are distinct and different languages, but the root is common and there's great similarities.

I don't speak either language, but I studied German for a year at school, and was a founder at an Anglo-Dutch company so, for a few years, I'd regularly visit Amsterdam. (As a Brit, it's really hard to learn any Dutch, since the locals would all reply to any Dutch I spoke in English. I got about as far as ordering beers and food, and counting to ten.) Dutch sounds like a very laid back version of German - about exactly what you'd expect, given the people. :-)

Several of my Dutch colleagues had learnt German, and all said it was very easy for them to learn. A lot of it is just a matter of speaking in a different accent.